Ship Helvetia, Christian Tofte

The ship Helvetia was built at Nova Scotia, Canada in 1845. She was owned by T. Tofte in Drammen. Her tonnage was 229,5 Norwegian Commercial lasts. A ship by this name sailed with emigrants from Farsund in 1848 and arrived at New York Aug. 7. She was mastered by Capt Syversen. This is probably the same ship that was sailing several voyages in the 1860-ies. The newspaper notice below was printed in Morgenbladet in 1860, it tels that a crowd of people from Hallingdal and other parts of Oppland had arrived to Drammen to depart for America on the Helvetia. She sailed from Drammen about May 10th and arrived at Quebec June 11th. She was mastered by Capt. G.A. Haagensen. Because the National Archives of Canada [NAC] did not start the archiving of passenger lists before 1865, and the Norwegian emigration records did not start before 1867, there is no surviving passenger list for this voyage in any of those archives. Timeline to records. In 1861 she departed Drammen on Apr. 29, and arrived at Quebec on July 5. She arrived the arrived the quarantine station at Grosse Île on July 3rd where she was detained for 2 days in quarantine. The ship sailed in ballast, and was carrying 339 steerage passengers. There were 5 deaths on the voyage. She was mastered by Captain G.A. Haagensen and had a crew of 17. There is no surviving passenger list for this voyage, see above. She was announced again in 1862, but no confirmation has been found for a voyage this year.

Morgenbladet May 6th, 1860